News

November 10, 2020

Hiring platform Remote secures $35m as “remote working becomes the norm”

40% of workers are expected to continue in fully or partly remote roles after the pandemic ends


Freya Pratty

3 min read

The cofounders of Remote.

In the future, you won’t need to think about living anywhere near your job, you’ll be based in a coworking space, and your hours will be flexible. 

So says the HR tech startup Remote — and it’s just secured $35m to help facilitate this vision. 

The startup, which was launched earlier this year, provides a platform to help companies hire and pay employees from anywhere in the world, covering international payroll, taxes and immigration services. 

The new investment is led by Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital and, coupled with an initial funding round in April, brings total investment in Remote to $46m. The startup’s team has grown from five to 50 this year, and they themselves are all remote, based around Europe and the US.

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Less cushy offices, more freedom

Job van der Voort, cofounder of Remote, says that the company anticipates 40% of workers continuing in hybrid or fully remote roles even after the pandemic ends. 

“Remote work has become the norm for thousands of businesses,” says van der Voort.

“Work itself will move towards providing you with more freedom. The best employers will provide all of the necessities to do your best work — and that doesn’t mean a cushy office in a metropole. Equipment, freedom in your time and in your work, and generous benefits that make life easier”

Visas and immigration

Paying people internationally is not difficult, van der Voort explains, but providing local employment agreements and complying with local payroll is challenging. 

To help with this, Remote acts as the local employer, taking on the task of seeking employee’s visas instead of companies doing it themselves. 

The startup is operational in 17 countries around the world, including most of Europe, the US, and parts of the Middle East, South America and Asia. It hopes to get to 30 countries by the end of the year. 

“We see demand for every country in the world,” says van der Voort. “There’s a positive bias towards native English-speaking countries, and countries that are easiest to reach in terms of time zones for US and EU based companies.”

The future of hiring

Amongst the companies Remote has already worked with are Gitlab, which makes web development software and Phaidra, which uses AI to change industrial processes. 

“As a fast-growing business, we recognize that we need to be very intentional in every decision we make — and hiring is at the top of the list,” says Katie Hoffman, cofounder of Phaidra. “Some of our best hires reside in countries where we don’t currently have entities.”

Remote says its customer base has doubled every month since it launched earlier this year, and its investors are convinced that its model is the future. 

“For any business to succeed and scale, it needs two key ingredients — financial capital and human capital. In the past, many high-growth businesses were hindered by their inability to find talent within a certain radius from the office,” says Hannah Seal from Index Ventures. 

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“Whatever happens, Covid 19 has permanently altered the role of the office for employers and employees alike."

Freya Pratty

Freya Pratty is a senior reporter at Sifted. She covers climate tech, writes our weekly Climate Tech newsletter and works on investigations. Follow her on X and LinkedIn